An in-depth look at the Clinton LumberKings from radio broadcaster Dave Lezotte. The LumberKings are the class A Midwest League Affiliate of the Seattle Mariners.

MWLCS Game Four – Notes and Lineups

I can’t help but feel we’ve been here before. Up against the wall again are the LumberKings, trailing the best-of-five Midwest League Championship Series two games to one after last night’s 7-3 loss to the Lake County Captains. Clinton didn’t have too much going offensively against the Captains aside from Mickey Wiswall’s solo homer in the sixth (listen: Wiswall Solo HR 9.18.10.mp3) and Tim Morris’s monster shot in the ninth (listen:Morris 2-R HR 9.18.10.mp3). On the mound, right-hander Tom Wilhelmsen struggled with five walks and also allowed an uncharacteristic two home runs in his first playoff loss.

James Jones looked to have legged out an infield single that would have loaded the bases and brought Nick Franklin to the dish as the tying run, but the call went Lake County’s way to end the game.

Here’s my silver lining of the day…the last time Jones made the last out on a bang-bang play at first to end the game was in a 3-2 loss to Cedar Rapids on September 8, the opening game of the West Division Quarterfinals. The Kings then went on the road and took two straight to eliminate the Kernels. They’re in that same situation again, needing to win the next two here in Lake County to take the title.

John Tamargo’s club is 4-0 in elimination games in these playoffs. Aside from the two wins in the Cedar Rapids series I just mentioned, they also took two at home over Kane County to win the West. I can already tell you this club is relaxed and not in panic mode today. They’re ready to force game five.

Game four is what’s in front of us tonight, and it will be right-hander Taylor Stanton taking the baseball for his second playoff start. He’s 0-1 with a 6.00 ERA in one outing in the postseason, but allowed all four of his earned runs in one bad inning in Kane County. Stanton is 1-0 with a 1.50 ERA in one start against the Captains and will hopefully have a similar outing tonight (1 ER on 5 hits, 6.0 IP, 7 strikeouts).

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